fraternity system across the country that have been getting a lot of publicity but specifically sigma alpha episilon with those under graduate brothers representatives have been extreme where we listening to john today with this? and also a finalist for the pulitzer two years ago to enjoy dinner conversation today as the top editor for higher education and "the washington post" contributor [applause] it is great to be here. so we will open for questions. how many if you are in fraternities?, and if you are parents? to get about third in fraternities. were you in a fraternity?. >>. >>. >> with a series of stories that bloomberg news and when i was finished i found myself with all these questions, why did so men desperately want to join these organizations when putting their lives at risk essentially? why did many of those young men get a lot from fraternity's but the headlines are so awful? that is a mystery to me. >> did it hurt you were not in a fraternity in terms of your reporting?. >> i was always asked solon of the extraordinary things about reporting is focusing heavily on sigma alpha

it's rush week the week for selecting new members and tonight it's operation charm at the sigma alpha epsilon house. so they are not going to see you the aim to find future flatmates for this brand new house located in the heart of campus inside there's a fireplace a club arm chair paintings of the former alumni you could almost forget their students live here for only a time so these are all before any real chance of that. tonight the fraternity will only be create the university's best pedigrees. graham has been an essay member since to. thousand and ten he knows the selection ritual well. for the house events are there as an event. we started a short history. there you go. the atmosphere is rather relaxed everybody's trying to make a good impression you're going to take away the house in a couple of guys together don't you. good for their candidates the first visit is only the beginning of a long process selection hazing initiations to get a place here they will have to get through what are sometimes violent challenges but not tonight discouraging the contenders is out of the quest

it's rush week the week for selecting new members and tonight it's operation charm at the sigma alpha epsilon house. so the owners can see you the aim to find future flatmates for this brand new house located in the heart of campus inside there's a fireplace a club arm chair paintings of the former alumni you could almost forget their students live here and we retire so these are all never any real changes. tonight the fraternity will only be create the university's best pedigrees. graham has been an essay member since two thousand and ten and he knows the selection ritual well. for those who better are also events. we store in a short history. they go. rather relaxed everybody's trainers were preparing our is just to be bigger than ours but they're doing it all like a two million dollars budget restructuring here the fraternity is operate with huge budgets entry for the sposi students cost between one thousand to three thousand euros a year the well. of these fraternities is mainly gifted to them by former members it's you know kind of like a a suite almost for two people but. benefa

and the fraternity that i focused on in my books, sigma alpha epsilon, it banned pledging three and a half years ago. before then it was the deadliest fraternity in america. it happened more deaths, ten over almost a decade. since then it hasn't had any deaths, and its race of injuries have declined more than 90%. so there is some evidence that that is a step that would make some difference. >> yang: one case that's getting a lot of attention is penn state. new charges have been filed. is that going to be enough to drive changes in fraternity life on other campuses? >> the penn state case is so horrifying on the one hand, because you have a young man forced to drink until he can barely stand and then fall down a flight of stairs while his "brothers," so to speak, refuse to call for help over an entire night, and he dies of traumatic brain injuries. it's appalling. but what was really special about penn state is the documentation. they had surveillance footage of what happened, and just over the last week, the prosecutors found out that they had been misled by the police that there was

it's rush week the week for selecting new members and tonight it's operation charm at the sigma alpha epsilon house. so there. and i can see you in the aim to find flesh. or house events or their roles and even if we started a short history. there you go. the atmosphere a swath of relaxed everybody's trying to make a good impression you want to take a look at the house in a couple of guys together and go oh yeah. good food they count it it's a family and. my dad know you're serious.